Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri
page 45 of 307 (14%)
page 45 of 307 (14%)
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a single category; and such, indeed, is the opinion expressed by
Lombroso, in the second volume of the fourth edition of his work, after his descriptive analysis of the chief forms of mental alienation. As a matter of fact, not only are the organic, and especially the psychological, characteristics of criminal madmen sometimes identical with and sometimes opposed to those of born and occasional criminals, but these very characteristics vary considerably between the different forms of mental alienation, in spite of the identity of the crime committed. It is further to be observed, in respect of criminal madmen, that this category also includes all the intermediary types between complete madness and a rational condition, who remain in what Maudsley has called the ``middle zone.'' The most frequent varieties in the criminality of these partially insane persons, or ``mattoides,'' are the perpetrators of attacks upon statesmen, who are generally men with a grievance, irascible men, writers of insane documents, and the like, such as Passanante, Guiteau, and Maclean. In the same category are those who commit terrible crimes without motive, and who nevertheless, according to the complacent psychology of the classical school, would be credited with a maximum of moral soundness. Again, there are the necrophiles, like Sergeant Bertrand, Verzeni, Menesclou, and very probably the undetected ``Jack the Ripper'' of London, who are tainted with a form of sexual psychopathy. Yet again there are such as are tainted with hereditary madness, and especially the epileptics and epileptoids, who may also be |
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